Robotic Nation Evidence

Marshall, take a look at this, straigth out of Manna:

"Robo-builder threatens the brickie"

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,176-2546574,00.html

"The researchers in Los Angeles claim their robot will be able to build the shell of a house in 24 hours. 'Compared to a conventional house, the speed of construction will be increased 200-fold and the building costs will be reduced to a fifth of what they are today,' said Khoshnevis."

Also here:

http://technocrat.net/d/2007/1/16/13318

AFAIK these things can't yet put the steel supports in place into the concrete, but once they do, we can start building welfare dorms to all those low-skilled construction workers (and illegal mexicans) that will be without a job ;-)
 

There is an automated bus already in service it works in amsterdams airport driving to and from the car park.

have a look at
http://www.autoroadvehicles.com/
 

Some thoughts:

By low-skilled do you mean low-intelligence? low-scholastic aptitude? Or what? I have many skills that don't amount to much in the market, and I don't like to take cheap shots at others when I like it or not, we are all in the same boat vis-a-vis technology.

Also, it does anyone know of an automated warehouse? It would seem that it would be feasible to use AI in a controlled environment, even at the present state-of-the art.
 

"If tests are successful, the bus could become operational within 10 years."

Meh. More public works pie-in-the-sky nonsense. Let competition sort this out, not government mandated taxpayer boondoggles.
 

black Jack: By "low-skilled" I mean someone whose abilities can be substitudet with a machine. Someone who had exellent skills in the 19th century factory would be considered "low-skilled" today because what he was great at at the time the machines are even better today. So by "low-skilled" i mean "productively inferior" and NOT "inferior human being" or anything like that.

Sorry if I have offended you (or anyone else for that matter) in any way. It wasn't my intention.
 

Black Jack, Warehouse systems are already automated to a large extent and of course will continue to do so as a costs cutting measure but the one thing that isn't there yet, unlike the RFID, isn't the AI, but vision systems. Once the machines can "see" what they are doing is when you will see humans driven out of those jobs. Marshall would know better as to how close that is becoming a reality than I would.

~nyc